What Is Arthritis?
"Arthritis" (which literally means joint inflammation) is not a single disease or simply a word healthcare providers use when they talk about painful, stiff joints. Arthritis is actually a term used to describe more than 100 kinds of diseases that affect the joints.
Arthritis can attack joints in almost any part of the body. Some forms of arthritis cause changes you can see and feel -- such as swelling, warmth, and redness in your joints. With some
types of arthritis, the pain and swelling last only a short time, but can be quite bad. Other types cause less troublesome symptoms, but still slowly damage your joints. Most types of arthritis are chronic, which means they can go on for a long period of time.
Despite a lot of research, scientists still know very little about the different types of arthritis.
In fact, scientists have been able to figure out the specific causes of only a few types of arthritis. For some types of arthritis, scientists know risk factors that may make a person more likely to develop the disease -- but not the actual cause or causes of the disease.
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